Pillowcase Art / What to Do When Your Craft Looks Like Crap

Just a note before I start - this post has 2 titles because its a double post (kinda).  There were really 2 main points to be made here and it seemed useless to me to split them up so enjoy!

I'm pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but my bedroom in high school had a Shabby Chic theme.  Since I'm doing a shabby chic living room now, I went looking through my old stuff when I was at my parents' house to see if I could reuse any of it.  I found some throw pillows and my old bedding (comforter, fancy pillowcases, and green pillowcases).

The bedding is so pretty; I'm just as in love with it now as I was what I picked it so many years ago, and I just had to find some way to incorporate it into my new living room. I brought the pillowcases home to use in crafts to decorate my new living room, after making sure that was alright with my parents.

I have yet to find a use for the fancy pillow shams (although there is one idea starting to take shape in my head), but I immediately knew what I wanted to do with the green pillow cases: pillowcase art!

Curtains!!

I have decided that I will be trying to post a new entry every other day.  That way, its not TOO much to ask of myself, but I can post lots of fun things!  I also get really annoyed when I find a blog I love and they only post randomly and I don't know when I will see a new post, so there you go: every other day.  And you now have my permission to yell at me if I don't get you new posts!

Now to the topic of the day: I'm excited about something and want to share: I have a design idea for my bedroom next year!!!

Red Bell Pepper Frittata

I told you I like to cook right?  Well some of my friends and I are taking turns making dinner so we can eat home cook food and the other night it was my turn!

For my dinner, I wanted to do something yummy, cheap, and quick.  I am also a HUGE fan of brinner (breakfast for dinner - we might have made that word up but go use it!) so I found this recipe and knew what I was making.

I know you can click that link and see the recipe, but I am going to get through it anyway to give you a few tips I realized while making/eating it!

Black and Shabby Chic

If you've been paying attention, you know my living room in my new apartment will be shabby chic.  This makes me sooo happy (because I love the style and because my couch doesn't need a slip cover!) However, I was torn because my fairly new end table (that I am in LOVE with) is black and black doesn't really say shabby chic to me. So I had a MASSIVE problem!

Decorated Letters

This is a super cute craft that I've done several times (for some of my friends, for my little sister, for my old sorority board).  Its pretty much my favorite craft!

I start with plain white letters from Hobby Lobby

source

These are only $2.99 but pretty much every other week they are 50% off and I only buy them when they're on sale so $1.50! These are pretty big (9" according to the site) and are super easy to paint on so I just let my creativity flow!

Apartment Furniture Part 4: Finishing Touches

So now I had basically everything I needed for my apartment, but I accidentally stumbled upon a few more jewels:

Apartment Furniture Part 3: Hunting Down Deals

Two things I really wanted that I wasn't finding on Craigslist were a night stand and a tv stand. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of both of these items, but I'm a bit particular and didn't find the kind I wanted. So I had to go another direction with looking for them.

Apartment Furniture Part 2: CraigsList Queen

I had furniture for the office area taken care of with stuff I already had, but I still needed a place to sleep, place to put my clothes, place to eat, etc. So, I got on CraigsList.

Now, there are some BAD deals on CraigsList, some really low quality items, some nice items listed for WAY too much, etc. So BE CAREFUL!!! Also, NEVER GO PICK UP AN ITEM ALONE! Always bring a buddy, preferably a male who looks a bit intimidating.

That being said, there are also some awesome deals on CraigsList if you are patient!

Apartment Furniture Part 1: Reuse

This year was the first year I moved into an apartment (I lived in dorms before that).  In choosing an apartment, I had lots of choices: upstairs or downstairs, roommates (how many) or by myself, which complex, will I get a pet?, etc.  The hardest decision for me personally, though, was furnished or unfurnished.  When I was deciding, I had a pro list for each side:

Furnished Apartment:

- much easier to move

- cheaper to move (no big bulky items)

- less to worry about the summer before I moved

- could buy furniture when I had money after college and could afford nice stuff

- Cheaper up front cost

Unfurnished Apartment:

- Could bring exactly the items I wanted

- mostly only unfurnished apartments here allow pets (which I wanted)

- Cheaper rent

- Less you can mess up in the apartment and have to pay  for when you move out

- Have these items forever (or until they break)

- Can pick style/colors

- Easier to set up the rooms how you want them (the furniture from apartments is normally really bulky and hard to move)

In the end I chose an Unfurnished Apartment (which I still believe was the best decision!) But, that meant I had to find furniture! And cheap, because I didn't have tons of money to spend on it. 

Shabby Mirror

When I was back home recently my dad asked my little sister and I to go through some of our old stuff to make sure he was good to give the boxes to Good Will.  In one of the boxes, my sister found this adorable little mirror from her Hannah Montana phase that was broken!

This is cute right?

There were two problems with the mirror: 

1) It was broken, as in the staples holding the mirror and backing in the frame had been stripped out and so they kept falling out

2) While the frame was purple with white polka dots, there were also what I assume to be camera flashes/spotlights in there

Maybe its just supposed to look like jewels sparkling?

Well neither of these seemed unsolvable and my sister didn't want the mirror anymore so I took it with me and the other night decided to revamp it to fit into my shabby chic living room next year! 

Hello!

So I've been wanting to start a blog for a while now and here it is!!!

First, let me start with a little bit of background:  I'm a college student (read: broke), but I still love to spend my free time doing crafts! I don't want to eat ramen noodles for every meal, and so I try to cook dinner for myself and my friends.  I am also currently preparing to move to a new apartment (2 bedrooms all to myself!!!) and want it to look like a home so I am working on some projects to make it look pretty and inviting!

I am going to share with you how I do all of my projects (plus how much they cost me) so you can attempt them on your own! Let me know if you try anything and how it goes! Or if you have any ideas you think I might like, please share!!!

Well I hope you enjoy!